Memorial Day weekend is officially over! Bummer, I know. I hope
you had as much fun this weekend as me and the family did. The
weather was amazing and made it that much more enjoyable.
I received a couple items in the mail last week I thought would
be good to share.
1. Tax Assessments - This week both Canyon and Ada County mailed
out the 2009 property tax assessments. It looks like the
assessor's office of both counties realize that values are down.
Make sure when you receive your assessment notice you review it
carefully. There is a short time period where you can dispute
the value with the assessor's office if you don't agree with the
value. Both Ada and Canyon only give three or four weeks to
dispute the value of your property with their office.
What to do if you feel that the assessor's value of your
property is too high? Contact a local appraiser or Realtor to
verify your suspicions. Even though you're a super good person,
the county assessor's office probably won't just take your word
that the value of your property is less than what their
appraisers are suggesting. You'll need to get recent (within the
last 90 days) comparable sales in the immediate area of your
property. Make sure the comparables are actual sales or pending
sales. Active listings will help support your case but
ultimately they won't support your value suggestion since they
have not been 'proved' in the market yet. Make sure you take
three or more sold comparables with you to the assessor's office.
This will make sure you're armed in your defense.
If my property value is down for 2009 does that mean my
monthly mortgage payment will be lower? The short answer is -
YES! However, Idaho homeowner's pay their taxes in arrears,
which means that you won't see the actual savings on your
monthly mortgage payment until January 2010. See, our property
taxes are paid in June and December each year for the preceding
6 month period. So for example, on June 20th we'll be receiving
our tax bills for July thru December 2008. The mortgage
companies will assume your taxes will continue the same for 2009
and will continue to collect the same monthly amount. Then in
December 2009 when they pay for January thru June 2009 the lower
tax amount will be paid and at that time they'll adjust the
escrow amounts down.
2. New Idaho Boating Sticker Requirement - The Idaho Legislature
passed a new law this year that requires all boat owners to
participate in Idaho's Invasive Species prevention. The boater's
participation requires the purchase of a sticker to be attached
on to each boat. The cost is $10 for motorized vessels and $5
for non-motorized boats. I spoke with the Sheriff's Deputies out
at Lake Lowell last week and they said they will begin enforcing
the new stickers June 1st.
For more information check out this site.
http://parksandrecreation.idaho.gov/idahoinvasivespeciesfund.aspx.
Have a great week!
